As she came near, he held out a grubby hand.
“I’m looking for Eben Shatterstone,” said Kit, squatting down to put herself on his level.
“Never heard of him,” the man said promptly. His eyes were fixed on the purse.
Kitiara drew out a steel piece and held it up. “I have this for Eben Shatterstone. If you happen to run into him—”
He made a grab at the steel piece. Kit was too quick for him. She snapped it back, out of reach. “This coin is for Eben Shatterstone.”
“I’m Shatterstone,” he said, looking at her with no very friendly eye. “What do you want?”
“Information.” Kitiara handed over the coin. He bit it, to make sure it was good, then slid it in a sack he wore suspended from a leather thong around his neck. “There’s another one like it if you tell me what I need to know.”
“About what?” Eben was suspicious.
“An elf woman. She was traveling with some adventurers who came to Pax Tharkas—”
Eben’s lips parted in an ugly leer. “Laurana.”
Kitiara seated herself on one of the tree’s exposed roots. “That might be the name. I’m not sure.”
“She was the only elf woman in Pax Tharkas,” said Eben. “And she was a beauty. Too bad she had eyes for only one man—or perhaps I should say half a man. The other half was elf.” He laughed at his little joke.
Kitiara laughed, too. “Tell me what you know about this elf. How did she come to be there? Was she traveling in company with this half-elf? Was she his lover, perhaps?” She spoke in casual tones.
Eben took a good look at her for the first time. Kitiara could guess what he must be thinking. She had dispensed with the trappings of a Dragon Highlord and was dressed in ordinary traveling clothes, the kind a sellsword might wear-leather vest, wool cloak, shirt, boots. Her clothes were of fine quality, however, as was the sword on her hip. An air of command and authority clung to her like expensive perfume. He knew she was someone important, he just didn’t know who. All of which suited Kitiara.
Eben began to talk. Kit sat with her back against the tree and listened.
The half-elf, whose name was Tanis, and the rest of the group—a mixed bunch of ne’er-do-wells—had been taken prisoner in Solace and were en route to Pax Tharkas when their slave caravan was attacked by a small party of Qualinesti elves (nowhere near five thousand!). The minute the elves had fired their arrows, the caravan’s guards, led by Fewmaster Toede, had beat a hasty retreat. The elves had freed the slaves and sent most of them on their way. One of the elves named Gilthanas, whom Eben had known before, recognized the half-elf. Apparently the two had been raised together or something like that. The half-elf and his friends accompanied the elves back to Qualinesti, which at the time was about to come under attack by the dragonarmies.
This Laurana had apparently been engaged to marry the half-elf, an arrangement her father would have opposed had he known anything about it. The elves convinced Tanis and his bunch to go to Pax Tharkas to start a slave revolt which would presumably keep the dragonarmies occupied and allow the elves time to evacuate their people.
The group set off for Pax Tharkas, accompanied by Laurana’s brother, Gilthanas, and Laurana, who sneaked after them and refused to go back home.
Eben Shatterstone knew all this because he had insinuated himself into the group, spying on them for Lord Verminaard. He had warned Verminaard about these dangerous people, but the Highlord, in his arrogance, had paid no heed.
As for Laurana, she was a pretty thing, though she was a spoiled brat who spent most of her time mooning over the half-elf.
“How did this half-elf react to that?” Kitiara asked.
“Tanis claimed he didn’t like her hanging all over him and following him around, but of course he was lapping it up like sweet cream,” said Eben, sneering. “What man wouldn’t? She was a beauty. The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
“For an elf,” said Kitiara.
“Elf, human…” Eben gave an ugly grin. “I wouldn’t have kicked her out of bed. And I bet that half-elf didn’t kick her out either. Who knows what those two were doing when the rest of us were asleep? Oh, sure, Tanis had to pretend he didn’t want to have anything to do with her, what with her brother watching him like a hawk. All of us could see the truth, though. Those two weren’t fooling anybody.”
Kitiara rose abruptly to her feet. She’d heard enough. More than enough. Her insides were twisted up like a tangle of snakes.
Eben looked at her purse. “Don’t you want to hear about what they did to Lord Verminaard?”
“Like I give a damn,” said Kit. She was in an ill humor. “I don’t suppose you know what happened to the elf woman after the fall of Pax Tharkas?”
Eben shrugged. “I heard from some dracos they all ended up in the dwarf kingdom.”
“The dwarven kingdom?” Kit repeated.
“Thorbardin. Seems they went there to hide out from the dragonarmies. If the half-elf is in Thorbardin, then I’ll bet Laurana’s there with him.”
Kitiara turned to leave.
“Hey!” Eben shouted wrathfully. “Where’s my money?”
Kitiara grabbed a coin from her purse and tossed it into the dirt, then stomped down the road, heading back to the dragonarmy camp. She had never been so angry. Tanis had sworn he loved no one but her and only a few weeks later, he was having a fling with another woman. And a filthy elf, no less! If Kit had met Tanis at that moment, she would have struck him down and stomped all over him.
Skie was still out on his errand and Kitiara had no way to reach him, so she was forced to stay in the dragonarmy camp, doing her best to avoid the imbecile Fewmaster. She kept herself occupied participating in training exercises, for Commander Grag insisted that his troops be kept in top fighting condition. Practicing against the draconians, who were excellent swordsmen, Kit worked out her frustrations and honed her own skills.
But when she wasn’t trading jabs with Grag or going along on raids into the surrounding territory, she was alone in her tent, brooding. Or rather, she wasn’t alone. An elf woman with golden hair and slanting blue eyes was always with her, sitting on the end of Kit’s bed, laughing at her.
Kitiara could not banish Laurana from her mind. Kit needed to find out more about her rival. After all, a good general required knowledge of the enemy in order to conduct a successful campaign. Kitiara sent her own spies into the territory around the dwarven kingdom. They would not be able to enter the mountain fastness, but they could keep watch, let her know if any humans, elves, or half-elves (especially half-elves) were sighted leaving the realm beneath the mountain.
“If I know Tanis,” she remarked to herself, as she wrote her directives, “he won’t stay cooped up underground with a bunch of dwarves for long. For one, he hates being in confined spaces. Living in a giant hole in the ground must be driving him crazy. For another, there’s a war going on and he’ll want to be in the thick of it.”
Kit was now actually looking forward to traveling to Icereach. Not only was she growing bored here, but it occurred to her that Highlord Feal-Thas, being an elf, must know Laurana, who was also an elf. Of course, this made about as much sense as saying that because Kitiara was human, she must know the Lord of Palanthas, but Kit wasn’t thinking straight. She kept close watch on the clouds and rejoiced the day she saw the sun sparkle off Skie’s blue scales as he circled overhead.
His report on the red dragons was not good. They were angry and discontented. They heard rumors of the spoils being garnered by dragons in other parts of Ansalon and they wanted the same. If the Red Wing didn’t attack something soon, the reds were going to go out on their own and they didn’t much care who the target was. In their mood, they’d just as soon attack a friend as a foe.
Kitiara duly reported this to Ariakas, adding her opinion that Fewmaster Toede was just what his lordship was seeking in a Dragon Highlord. When she told Toede she had recommended him, his gratitude and his stench were both overwhelming; apparently pleasure caused the hob’s sweat glands to go into a frenzy. When Kitiara finally managed to wipe the hobgoblin slobber off her boots, she went to say farewell to Grag.